Standing Closed with toggle clasp (purchased from Quietfire Design) attached with a piece of wire on the front. On the back I put a small enough hole to hold an eyelet and tied my hemp cord through it and the other section of the toggle.

Standing open

This was definitely a fat book. I'm using an open spine binding again. Just love it and it's soooo easy. I created a few extra pages. An title page and on the back of that a particulars page with hosted by and due dates etc. Also a two sided index page, with letter of alphabet and artist's name next to them. In the back section I added a fold over page with all the stamps on the envelope (peeled off my bubble wrap envelope) I received from Beth including the customs stamp and the Fat Book sticker. And a vignette "end"  similar to what I gave Beth.

My spine is 2.75" thick. I used book board for my covers and cut it about 1/4" larger on 3 sides. My hinge arm section is 1" thick. 

I used Utrecht white gesso and smeared it onto my covers. When dry I used a brass window stencil and various colors of stamp pads (gold, copper, rust, dark brown) using a stencil brush to apply the color, then wiping it off gently. 

The letters are very cheap wood letters from a dollar store. I was hesitant to use them because they really are cheap and inferior quality, but I love them now. I painted them with Folkart "green umber", when dry I smeared various colors from Color Box Mica stamp pads (Bronze, Yellow Gold, Jade Satin) then clear embossed them. You can get an idea of the look from the detail image below right, but in real they look fabulous like a faux metal. 

For the inside of the covers I used Bob Ross black gesso, then a layer of crackle medium, then I put some Daniel Smith Gold gesso and Venetian Red gesso on a glass plate without mixing them. I dipped my brush into both colors and only painted once over an area, getting all kinds of variations in color. When dry I gave it a coat of Dura Clear.

My title page is Arches Text wove that I had in my stash. Done in browns and gold's and with salt. I outlined the letters of my title with my embossing technique and my own combination of embossing powders (brownish color), then filled in the letters with Diamond Glaze, so you get a nice contrast between the matte of the text wove paper and the gloss of the letters.

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Below detail of wood letters and background

Above: Inside cover and title page spread

Below: Details of the inside cover (crackle technique) and Title page.

Spine: I painted the linen hinging tape with Twinkles H2o's in all the gold's, copper's and bronze's I had with a touch of green and dark brown. When it was dry I rubber stamped letters with a black stamp pad. I marked off my 1/2" margins on each page and stuck my tape down. There was about a 1/4" between the page edges which made it easy to fold in half and to adjust for any differences in  thickness. I did this on both sides, so whether you're looking  on the outside of a signature or the inside, they are both the same. Nice and uniform.

To view the instructions for binding this book please click on the link below.

Binding